MAINTEC 2012 proves it remains the Maintenance Industry's leading event

10 March 2012

As the doors to Hall 8 at Birmingham's NEC closed recently, it remains evident that MAINTEC 2012 continues to be, after 37 years, the place where the maintenance and asset management industry comes together each year to network and keep up-to-date with the latest technological advances and techniques. The event proved a huge success yet again this year for both exhibitors and visitors, as the hall buzzed with conversations about the latest products and services on offer and visitors came away with new ideas, approaches and inspiration to improve their maintenance strategy for the coming year.

MAINTEC, held from Tuesday 28 February to Thursday 1 March, remains a time-and-cost effective platform for suppliers to the maintenance and asset management sector, and continues to be year on year the proven place for business; the 2013 event takes place on 5-7 March 2013.

Exhibitor Andy Baker, UK and Ireland Sales Manager at FLIR Systems Ltd, said: "We've been exhibiting at MAINTEC for a number of years now, but this year seemed one of the best yet. We launched three new thermal cameras at the show, as well as discussing our latest software and other offerings. We were delighted by the response that we got from visitors to our stand, and have picked up a number of high quality leads. Once again MAINTEC proved the perfect platform to showcase and launch our latest products."

As well as new products and services making their UK debuts, MAINTEC also played host to some new insights revealed for the first time by its expert speakers.

"Our goal is to be a zero loss business, that means eliminating anything such as accidents, material wastage, spillages or unnecessary downtime. The autonomous maintenance programme we're implementing is a crucial element within that drive.

"AM in our factories has already yielded major improvements in our operational efficiency on the lines it has been completed upon. An improvement of just 5% in any of our factories significantly helps us to reduce waste, energy, packaging materials and unnecessary running time, that all adds up to a huge saving, while helping to make our teams to feel more engaged in the process and give them more ownership of their machines.

"We're proving there are real commercial benefits from having highly skilled, knowledgeable operators who can care for their machines, while achieving all of this without hurting anyone in the process."

New to MAINTEC this year was 'HAZEX', the new specialist hazardous area, introduced to the show to reflect the growing responsibilities of engineering professionals and the growing concerns and tighter legislation over the health and safety of industrial, commercial and government sites and facilities.

Michael Dominguez, Publisher at Hazardous Engineering Solutions and supporting the new event, said: "HAZEX was the perfect opportunity for us to show how we can help engineers and health & safety professionals alike implement the best safety practices available and minimise the risks associated with working within hazardous areas. The area was very busy across the three days, and we had some very productive discussions with many visitors, all of whom seemed very interested and impressed with what HAZEX and MAINTEC as a whole had to offer."

The show included a comprehensive 'free to attend' learnShops™ seminar programme, with speakers from Siemens, Schaeffler, and Britvic. During the third day, the Dragons' Den-inspired contest 'Lions' Lair' took place, with Pickering Lifts coming out on top winning the competition with its new HVLS Fans.

Matt Benyon, Managing Director of organisers easyFairs UK, concluded: "MAINTEC 2012 has to be our best yet. There was a real buzz of positivity around the show, which is an encouraging sign that British industry continues to have so much to offer. Maintenance and asset management are disciplines that are defined by efficiency, with both professionals and equipment having to work leaner, faster, and ever harder - and as such they are always focused on improvements and the latest innovations and solutions to achieve that. This is why MAINTEC continues to have a vital place in the maintenance calendar year on year, providing professionals with an effective forum to focus on product development and new ideas. We could not be more delighted with this year's show, and hope that our exhibitors and visitors have a productive year before we welcome them back in 2013."